STANLEY BAKER & PETER CUSHING IN 'THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED'

Stanley Baker on poster Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2

Not only is THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED the second movie where Niall MacGinnis has a gun drawn on a train during the climax following CURSE OF THE DEMON, but THE THIRD MAN has been knocked-off once again...

And this time... despite a horribly intrusive, melodramatic harpsichord hammering like lightning following a horror film revelation... it's a pretty good effort as former German child now adult British citizen/jazz pianist Stanley Baker returns to Germany after getting a mysterious call about his father, who he thought was dead twenty-years ago, and is now dead again, only it happened a week earlier...

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Georgina Ward

And as this effective mystery thriller progresses, the dad, like Orson Welles's Harry Lime, could have been involved in some bad things, covered up by a doctor played by Peter Cushing (protecting widow Mai Zetterling and directed by Hammer's Quentin Lawrence, and having co-starred with Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND), while also helping gorgeous ingenue Georgina Ward, whose father was buried in the same grave that, well...

There are too many twists to count or spoil, but Baker, donning Ray Charles-like sunglasses even indoors, goes from place to place in his usual strongarm, no-nonsense fashion, only a bit more vulnerable, and deliberately confused, like the audience.

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Mai Zetterling, Peter Cushing

Zulu stars Stanley Baker & Nigel Green in The Man Who Finally Died

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Mela White

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Future 2001 Ape Danny Grover in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Future 2001 Ape Danny Grover in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Stanley Baker

Georgina Ward in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Georgina Ward in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Georgina Ward in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Peter Cushing and Georgina Ward in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Peter Cushing and Nigel Green in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Nigel Green

Georgina Ward in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Georgina Ward in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Georgina Ward in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Peter Cushing

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Peter Cushing

Niall MacGinnis in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Niall MacGinnis in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Future 2001 Ape Danny Grover in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Mai Zetterling in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Mela White

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Mai Zetterling

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Nigel Green

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Peter Cushing in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Mai Zetterling

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED

Stanley Baker in THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED with Nigel Green